1. Field of Invention
This invention generally relates to systems and methods for emphasizing high-value annotations in a freeform environment.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional user interfaces for digital libraries tend to focus on retrieval. That is, users may retrieve documents online or on a display screen. However, the users then must print the document and mark-up or annotate the important passages/phrases within the document by hand. Annotations can help the reader understand the document contents in a quick glimpse, provide a more recognizable structure for the reader's own train of thought and/or focus a reader to the most pertinent and useful portions of a longer document.
As a reader marks the document, a reader's annotations are not equally important. That is, the marks readers make have different functions and different degrees of value. The difference in degrees of value allows a user to personalize a document so that the main passages, ideas or important citations standout in summary of the entire text. Subsequently, an automatic electronic outline of the document can be produced based on the annotations.